Why not a Religious Vocation?

From the Holy Bible:

“And every one that has left house, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for
My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life
everlasting.” (Matt. 19-29

And He said to them: ‘The harvest indeed is
great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that
He send laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10.2)

Our Lady of Good Success as revealed to Venerable Mariana in the 17th century in Ecuador: “Woe to the world
should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance,
for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them,
because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No
one on the face of the earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the
conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the
land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this
is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents.

“O, if mortals only understood how to
appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of
their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of
souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the
fundamental cause for their downfall!”

St. Thomas Aquinas thoughts on Religious Vocations:

When we see, as St. Thomas did, the proper
place of the counsels in the plan of Christian perfection as useful means
towards the fulfillment of the universal vocation to sanctification, we can
understand why he differs so definitely from many modern writers in applying
these counsels. His views on entrance into the religious life may shock those
unfamiliar with the traditional treatment of this subject.

The Angelic Doctor praises anyone who can
induce others to enter religion, unless violence, simony or deceit were
involved. He denies any need of long deliberation over the matter, because in
itself the religious state is a better way of life. Nor, he says, should one
seek advice about what we would call “having a vocation.” The only time advice
should be sought, St. Thomas counsels, is in matters of impediment (such as
physical infirmity, debts, etc.) Or in the choice of a particular community. And
even then, he warns, one should seek only the counsel of a person who will
encourage rather than discourage the aspirant!

St. Thomas deplores the idea of preventing
children, or those just emerging from a life of sin, or recent converts from
seeking the advantages of the religious state. To ask them to wait and practice
the precepts first, or to look for something exceptional in themselves, is, says
St. Thomas, to misunderstand altogether the nature of the counsels. Further, he
strongly approves the practice of advising the religious state as a penance, as
well as praises making a private vow to enter religion at some time and then
holding oneself to it.

Surely this attitude towards entering the
religious state greatly differs from that of many modern authors on the
subject. They would advise a perfect practice of the precepts before attempting
the counsels; they would advise the young to wait for maturity; they would
advise the convert to become more settled in the practice of his new faith.
Worst of all, they would imply the need for an introspective search for some
special voice in the inmost depths of the soul. St. Thomas always approaches the
subject from an objective aspect, and not from the unknown subjective aspect of
an internal element-although he is the first to insist on a necessary divine
movement and disposition. But for him this divine correlative to human
aspiration would not be rare or exceptional.

Following his doctrine we can therefore
propose a universal invitation to the practice of the particular counsels
proposed by Our Lord. Who are invited to enter the religious state? All!

St. Francis Xavier

Holy zeal may properly be said to have
formed the character of St. Francis Xavier. Consumed with an insatiable thirst
for the salvation of souls and of the augmentation of the honor and kingdom of
Christ on earth, he ceased not with tears and prayers to conjure the Father of
all men not to suffer those to perish whom He had created in His own divine
image, made capable of knowing and loving Him, and

Redeemed with the adorable blood of His Son,
as is set forth in the excellent prayer of this saint, printed in many books of
devotion. For this end the saint, like another St. Paul, made himself all to all
and looked upon all fatigues, sufferings, and dangers as his pleasure and gain.
In transports of zeal, he invited and pressed others to labor for the conversion
of infidels and sinners. There were many moving appeals which our saint fired at
Europe for missionaries of strong constitution to come and assist him. In one
such supplication addressed from some hut in the Spice Islands, he opined, “If
only a dozen of them (missionaries) would come every year, there would soon be
an end of this sect of Mohammed and everybody in the islands would soon become
Christians.” How is it, the apostle argued, that so many men of the world face
such unspeakable dangers, risking their lives on land and sea so as to attain
some worthless treasure that will perish, while devout men cannot face the same
challenges, armed with the power of God’s Name, so that they might spend
themselves for Christ and the salvation of untold numbers who cry out to them
for help, thereby securing for themselves and so many others an everlasting
crown with the angels of heaven. What a tragedy is this! Who can comprehend it?
The saint was truly exasperated by the apathy of religious men in Europe whose
priorities, he felt, were all of kilter and nothing short of selfish. Here is
part of a letter sent from Cochin: “How often I long to go through the
universities of Europe, shouting at the top of my voice, like one who has taken
leave of his senses! Especially in Paris University, calling in the Sorbonne, to
those who have more learning than desire to put it to good use how many souls
turn away from the road to glory and go to Hell because of their carelessness!

Handwritten copies of the prolific missives
penned by the indefatigable missionary for pious consumption were distributed
all over Christendom. Their extant collection compiles what the Church now calls
the MONUMENTS XAVERANA. Kings, queens, princes, priests, seminarians, bishops,
cardinals and even the Pope meditated upon his uplifting exhortations. They drew
a host of vocations into the Jesuit ranks including the widower Duke of Gandia,
Francesco de Borjo, a future saint.

But all of these recruits took time to
train. Much of the tangible success of these writings was seen only after the
saint passed away.

St. Francis was a model for missionaries,
formed upon the spirit of the apostles. So absolute a master was he of his
passions that he knew not what it was to have the least notion of anger or
impatience and in all events was perfectly resigned to the Divine Will, from
whence proceeded an admirable tranquility of soul, a perpetual cheerfulness, and
equality of countenance. He rejoiced in afflictions and sufferings and said that
one who had once experienced the sweetness of suffering for Christ, will ever
after find it worse than death to live without a cross. By humility, the saint
was always ready to follow the advice of others and attributed all blessings to
their prayers which he most earnestly implored.

Let us consider the words of St. John
Chrysostom, (347-407), the illustrious Bishop of Constantinople, and Doctor of
the Church, whose Episcopal achievements are celebrated in the ancient liturgy
which bears his name. He tells us: “Zeal for the salvation of souls is of so
great a merit before God, that to give up all our goods to the poor, or to spend
our whole life in the exercises of all sorts of austerities cannot equal the
merit of it. There is no service more agreeable to God than this one. To employ
one’s life in this blessed labor is more pleasing to the Divine Majesty than to
suffer martyrdom. Would you not feel happy if you could spend large sums of
money in corporal works of mercy? But know, that he who labors for the salvation
of souls does far more: nay, the zeal of souls is of far greater merit before
God . . . Than the working of miracles.”